How fast, and well do roses grow from seed?

Question

Most people grow roses from clipings, and this seems to work well, but I have had NO luck with it, but what about from seed? The hip of a rose has seeds, will these grow fast at all, or even grow? And how well? Is there a difference?? How do I go about planting them, a green house for starters, right?....Okay, so as you see I know nothing about growing roses from seed, I need help!!

Answer 1

If you have different types of rose bushes, they may have cross pollinated and you could end up w/ some kind of really neat new variety. It will probably take several years to have a flower from a rose started by a seed. I have actually never heard of anyone doing that before, though I knew a lady who used to start Camilla bushes from seeds. Why don't you lay a branch either over a pot and weigh it down so it will root or let a branch touch the ground and let it root. I have a antique rose bush that has done that several times, rooted where it is touching the ground.

Answer 2

The issues you have with growing roses from seed is that they will have been cross-pollinated and thus you have almost no chance of getting a rose like the one that you harvested the seeds from.

Commercial rose growers breed new roses by intentionally cross-pollinating roses that have specific characteristics. For example, yellow roses tend to be prone to blackspot, so a breeder might cross breed a yellow rose with a rose known for disease resistance. The outcome has no way of being measured until the rose matures, thus rose breeding is a slow process.

Going back to your question, people grow roses from clippings because it's easier than growing roses from seed, but also because it ensures that the new rose will be an exact replica of the parent rose.

Barrie